Department for Transport

Bus Services: Franchises

Earl Attlee: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the monetary value of the relevant information that a franchising authority may obtain from local bus operators under Clause 5 of the Bus Services Bill [HL].

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: The Government has made no assessment of the monetary value of the information that a local authority can obtain under Clause 5. The Government understands that some of the information will be commercially sensitive and it is therefore imperative that authorities treat it with care. The information can be used only in connection with the franchising scheme.

Bus Services: Franchises

Earl Attlee: To ask Her Majesty’s Government on what basis local authorities are to be given powers under Clause 5 of the Bus Services Bill [HL] to demand relevant information from bus operators, particularly in cases where such relevant information is market-sensitive and providing it to any other party might be contrary to the Competition Act 1998.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: The Government wants to ensure that authorities considering franchising can access the information they need to accurately assess their franchising scheme. This will help to ensure that informed decisions can be made on the basis of robust evidence and analysis. We recognise that some of the information provided by operators will be commercially sensitive. Franchising authorities will need to treat this information with care, and will be able to refuse to release such information by way of the relevant Freedom of Information exemptions. The Bill also makes clear that the information acquired by the franchising authority must only be used in connection with its franchising functions, and not for other purposes.

Bus Services: Franchises

Earl Attlee: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether draft regulations will be made available under Clause 5 of the Bus Services Bill [HL] relating to the provision of relevant information that a franchising authority may obtain from local bus operators, and if so, when.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: The Government will work closely with both local authority stakeholders and bus operators to develop sensible proposals that both meet the needs of franchising authorities and do not place unnecessary burdens on local bus operators. Policy discussions with key stakeholders were started in May, and policy scoping notes, setting out the policy intent of each of the regulations, were circulated to Noble Peers on 15th June. Our intention is to continue to engage with bus operators and local authorities to produce draft regulations for consultation in the autumn.

Department for Education

Children's Centres: Closures

Lord Storey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many county councils have closed down their children's centres.

Lord Nash: Local authorities have a duty under the Childcare Act 2006 to ensure sufficient children’s centres to meet the needs of local families. Local authorities must also consult fully before any significant changes are made to children’s centre services.All 27 county councils in England have children’s centre sites open to families and children providing children's centre services as part of a network.According to data supplied to the department by local authorities, at end May 2016, eight county councils had closed some sites within their children’s centre networks.An independent survey carried out by the national children’s charity, 4Children (published October 2015) estimated more than a million children and families were using children’s centres.

Grammar Schools: Buckinghamshire

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will take action in response to the recent report by Local Equal Excellent that children with a Pakistani background sitting the 11-plus entrance examination in Buckinghamshire are only half as likely as their white classmates to secure a place at one of the grammar schools in that area.

Lord Nash: The School Admissions Code requires school admission arrangements to be ‘fair, clear and objective’. It further requires that ‘admission authorities must ensure that their arrangements will not disadvantage unfairly, either directly or indirectly, a child from a particular social or racial group’.Those who consider an admission policy, including a selection test, to breach the School Admissions Code can submit an objection to the independent Schools Adjudicator. If the Adjudicator agrees that the policy is unfair or otherwise breaches the Code she can require schools to amend their admission arrangements.

Department for Work and Pensions

Poverty

Lord Bird: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the Office for National Statistics report on the levels of (1) persistent, and (2) overall, poverty rates in the United Kingdom, what new actions they intend to take to eradicate poverty and the causes of poverty in this Parliament.

Lord Bird: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what amount and proportion of funding from their poverty prevention programmes currently in operation has been allocated to (1) preventing the underlying causes of poverty, (2) dealing with emergency effects of poverty, (3) managing the ongoing effects of poverty, and (4) alleviating the effects of poverty, in (a) each of the last five years, and (b) to date in 2016.

Lord Freud: This Government’s welfare reforms are focused on supporting people to find and keep work whilst ensuring that we are protecting the most vulnerable. At the end of the Parliament we will be spending over £60bn – 3% of GDP – supporting people on low incomes. We know that work is the best route out of poverty. Evidence shows that almost three-quarters of poor workless families who found full employment escaped poverty; and that the highest poverty exit rate of 75% was for families that moved from part to full employment. The number of children living in workless households is down by 449,000 since 2010 Our new life chances approach to poverty and disadvantage will include a set of indicators to measure progress in tackling the root causes of poverty such as worklessness, educational attainment and family stability.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Soil: Research

Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what surveys of earthworm populations and diversity in arable soils in England have been carried out since 1996, and for each project what was the contractor's budget, and where the final report can be found on the gov.uk website.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: Defra has not carried out any surveys of earthworm populations and diversity specifically in arable soils. However, Defra carries out research on earthworms as part of a wider programme of research on sustainable land management because of their important role in developing soil structure, water movement, nutrient dynamics, and plant growth. Defra has contributed funding to the Open Air Laboratory (OPAL) Soil and Earthworm Survey in England launched in 2012. Two technical reports detailing the analysis of the first set of results of the Soil and Earthworm Survey are publicly available on the website of Imperial College London. Defra’s delivery partner Natural England has previously funded the London Natural History Museum to survey earthworms in a number of semi-natural sites across England and Scotland, but also included sampling from 6 arable sites. This work was captured in a report published by Natural England in April 2014 entitled “Earthworms in England: distribution, abundance and habitat”. The report is available on Natural England’s website, reference NECR145. In 2014 Defra funded the establishment of the Sustainable Intensification Research Platform (budget £4,111,184), supporting research into sustainable productive farming techniques, which includes current assessment of earthworm abundance under contrasting arable systems at the Allerton Project at Loddington.

Soil: Research

Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the current health and status of earthworm populations in English arable soils, and based on research and surveys carried out by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ commissioned research and research of other organisations, what trends they have identified in the last two decades.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: Defra is working closely with the research councils and is funding research to improve our understanding of the role of soil biodiversity in contributing to soil condition. This research includes a Defra-funded review of the current available UK-affiliated evidence base. The Report of the review was published in March and has been placed in the House Library. We are looking closely at its findings, including whether there is a need to carry out analysis of trends in biodiversity in order to understand better how the functions it supports, such as soil structure, water movement, nutrient dynamics and plant growth, contribute to soil condition across a range of ecosystem services and management practices.

Soil: Research

Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many soil research projects have been completed for which it has provided funding, and how the findings were translated into practical measures that could be applied at farm level, in each year since 1997.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: Since 1997, Defra and its predecessors have funded 445 soil research projects, the findings of which are translated into practical measures that can be applied at farm level in a number of ways, including testing of measures as part of the research, reviews of the evidence base feeding into the development of farmer guidance or direct knowledge transfer as part of the research project. The table below denotes the number of completed soil research projects funded by Defra and its predecessors in each year since 1997: 19974019984419992620002820013420022220032620042120051820062920071520082320092420102920111720121820131220141020159 In addition since 2005-6, the first year for which data is available, Research Councils have funded 614 soil research projects. The table below denotes the number of soil research projects funded by the Research Councils that have completed, by financial year, going back to 2005-06. Data for before that year is not available as the information could only be provided at disproportionate cost. 2005-6592006-7622007-8922008-9572009-10682010-11822011-12702012-13262013-14452014-15292015-1624

Home Office

Police: Public Records

Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recommendation of the report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel in September 2012 that police records in England and Wales should come under the Public Records Acts 1958 and 1967; and whether they intend to implement that recommendation through the current Policing and Crime Bill.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: The Government is considering the options for achieving greater transparency and accessibility of police records in England and Wales, including whether to extend the Public Records Act 1958 to include police records.No decision about implementation has been taken at this time, while careful consideration is given to potential administrative and cost burdens.

Police: Per Capita Costs

Lord Dear: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the average cost of a police constable with four years service in (1) the Metropolitan Police Service, (2) a police force in the Home Counties, and (3) a police force elsewhere in England and Wales.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: The Home Office has calculated the total salary costs of constables on the pay scale in place since April 2013. These include the employers’ portion of National Insurance and pension contributions and the London Weighting payment where applicable. At pay point 4, which typically approximates to four years service, the cost would be £36,900 in London and £33,700 in other forces.Police officers may receive other allowances and overtime which are not captured in these costs. These include London and South East Allowances which may be paid annually to officers in London and some South East forces at a level set by the relevant chief officer, to meet recruitment and retention needs. These allowances are capped at the following levels: In London, at a maximum of £4,338 per officer; in Bedfordshire, Hampshire and Sussex at a maximum of £1,000 per officer; and in Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey and Thames Valley at a maximum of £2,000 per officer.Four years’ service may not be equivalent to being at pay point four. The general expectation is that officers will progress up the scale by one pay point every 12 months subject to satisfactory performance, but there may be variations to this. A constable with four years service is likely to fall between pay point three and pay point five. These are shown in the table below:  Salary costs (rounded to the nearest £100)Pay pointLondon (includes a London Weighting payment at £2,349 per officer)All other forces (including forces in the South East)028,60025,400132,70029,600234,10030,900335,50032,300436,90033,700539,70036,500645,30042,100752,90049,800 Notes:(1) The employers’ portion of pension contributions has been calculated at a rate of 21.3%.(2) The employers’ portion of National Insurance contributions has been calculated at a rate of 13.8% on earnings above the secondary threshold. NI employer contribution has been calculated using the new contribution due to the Single Tier Pension (Introduced in April 2016).(3) London Weighting is a pensionable payment, and applies to all officers working in London forces.(4) An officer may be appointed at pay point 1 rather than pay point 0 if they possess a Policing Qualification or relevant experience. An officer appointed at pay point 0 will move to pay point 1 on completion of initial training.

HM Treasury

Tobacco: Smuggling

Lord Rennard: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 14 June (HL Deb, col 1099), what action they are taking in response to the practice by some companies of supplying low-tax foreign markets with more tobacco than they are capable of consuming, thereby facilitating their products being brought back to the UK and depriving HM Revenue and Customs of revenue.

Lord Rennard: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress HM Revenue and Customs has made in investigating in the UK tobacco companies that over-supply low tobacco-tax foreign countries, and what action has resulted from those investigations.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: The UK introduced stringent rules in 2006 requiring all UK Tobacco Manufacturers (TMs) to control their supply chains. These rules required them to take steps to avoid supplying cigarettes and/or HRT (hand rolling tobacco) to persons who are likely to smuggle them into the UK or resupply them to other persons who are likely to do the same. Tobacco manufacturers can face penalties of up to £5m for failing to comply with the rules. HMRC action, in monitoring TM’s compliance, is reflected in a reduction in supplies of UK brand cigarettes to high risk markets of 20% since 2010. At the same time, supplies to those markets of UK brand Hand Rolling Tobacco (HRT) has reduced by 36%. Despite this success HMRC is not complacent. They continue to closely monitor the illicit market in the UK, which today is made up of a mix of unregulated brands, non UK brands, and counterfeit as well as genuine UK brands, to ensure the legislation is working. HMRC also robustly challenge TM’s supply chain policies and procedures to ensure their continued compliance with the rules. HMRC cannot comment on the progress of individual investigations but it is a matter of public record that one manufacturer has been subject to a supply chain penalty. This penalty is currently under to appeal.

Tobacco: Smuggling

Lord Rennard: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their current estimate of the loss of tax revenue each year owing to tobacco smuggling.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: The 2014/15 tax revenue loss associated with illicit tobacco, including both cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco, is estimated to be £2.1 billion.  Estimates of UK tax revenue losses are published every year. The latest estimates, for the years 2006/7 to 2014/15, are published in ‘Tobacco Tax Gap estimates 2014-15’.

Tobacco: Smuggling

Lord Rennard: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take to further reduce the capacity for tobacco wholesalers and retailers to supply illicit tobacco.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: The Government currently has no plans to introduce new measures specifically applicable to wholesalers and retailers to tackle the supply of illicit tobacco. However, HM Revenue and Customs has undertaken a public consultation on the implementation of Article 6 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Illicit Trade Protocol, part of which is concerned with consideration of the licensing of the supply chain for tobacco products. The consultation sought views from a wide range of stakeholders to help assess the potential benefits and impacts of introducing a scheme to help establish a clear evidence base for any decisions. The results of the consultation and the proposed next steps will be announced in due course.

WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Lord Rennard: To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they expect to ratify the WHO protocol on the illicit trade in tobacco.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: The Government is fully committed to implementation and ratification of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Illicit Trade Protocol. The majority of the requirements of the Protocol are already in place in the UK. HM Revenue and Customs has recently consulted on the implementation of Article 6 of the Protocol, which includes the requirement to license tobacco manufacturing machinery. The Government will ratify the Protocol once we are satisfied that the legislation is in place to meet this requirement.

Devolution: Finance

Lord Empey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the devolved administrations are permitted to re-allocate funds provided by HM Treasury for capital expenditure purposes for resource expenditure purposes.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: Devolved administrations may not switch provision from Capital to Resource, except where bespoke arrangements have been agreed with Treasury ministers. The annual ‘Consolidated Budgeting Guidance’, published by the Treasury, sets out the budgeting framework for expenditure control for devolved administrations.